


Praise

by Vandereer



Series: Flash fiction prompts [1]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Character Study, Flash Fic, Gen, Kuina Deserved Better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-04-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:01:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23878069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vandereer/pseuds/Vandereer
Summary: Kuina doesn't know how to take a compliment.
Relationships: Kuina & Roronoa Zoro
Series: Flash fiction prompts [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1728745
Comments: 6
Kudos: 18





	Praise

**Author's Note:**

> VERY short but I figured it might as well go up here. I just.... love Kuina so much guys I need to make writing about her one of my goals for this year.  
> Enjoy!

Kuina slipped out into the training yard, Wado Ichimonji in hand. Her father would chide her for taking their family heirloom out for practice, so she made sure to go through her forms in the dead of night while the dojo slept. The only sounds the constant, bubbling chirps of crickets and the soft breaths of wind as her sword rushed through the air. A rare smile crept onto her face as she went through her forms, the steel perfectly balanced in her hands. Then a voice broke through the stillness.

“That was cool! Can you do it again?”  
The new boy, Zoro, was watching her, perched on a rock.

“I don’t need praise from you!” Kuina said coolly. “And I’m not a performer.”

Zoro was silent, as if parsing what he wanted to say next. “Could you teach me?”  
Kuina snorted. “Why would I teach my rival? Go away!”  
“I’ve already learned all I can from Mr. Koushiro!”  
“Then I suppose you’re a sword master now, congratulations!”

Kuina bowed low to the ground and eyed him savagely. “And at such a young age too.”

Praise from her father came a little sparse, so this weird, feral boy blowing into her life like a tornado and heaping it on her felt strange. She came to one conclusion:

 _He_ has _to be mocking me, there’s no other explanation._

“Why don’t you go to bed?” Kuina snapped, as she rose back to full height and raised her sword again. “You’ll be cranky in the morning.”

It seemed like she could snap at him all night and he would still be watching her intently, admiration in his steely grey eyes. She soon accepted that he wasn’t going to leave and decided to ignore him as best as she could.

Kuina let out an agitated breath, before leaping into the air and driving her sword into the training dummy, with more force than she intended. The straw split neatly in two at the ferocity of it, straw flying everywhere as the two halves fell from the pole and fell noisily to the ground.

Not long later, a light came on in the main building. Kuina cringed as footsteps clomped over the floorboards, then the screen door slid open.

“Kuina!” Koushiro’s voice said quietly, a hint of warning in it. “What are you doing up so late? And you too, Zoro! Go to bed, _both of you!”_

Koushiro waited with folded arms as she and Zoro trudged over to him. Kuina slid Wado back into its sheath, shooting a glare at Zoro to say _now look what you’ve done!_

Zoro lowered his head and slunk past Koushiro, quickly padding back to the boy’s dorm room.

“Kuina.” Koushiro stopped her before she could walk past. He eyed the sword in her hand with a dark eye, frowning a little. “We’ll talk about _that_ in the morning. I want you to clean up the mess you made, _first thing_ tomorrow!”

“Yes father.” she sighed.

**Author's Note:**

> I've never really written anything this short and keeping within the word count was a little challenging, so constructive criticism is welcome!


End file.
